A Rebel’s Surrender and Care of the Temple Purity 805

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Uh, today's photo of a cotton candy sunset over Lake Ontario comes to us today from Celestial Blue Photography, who captured this scene in Oswego back on August 5th. I just love how God lights up the sky to keep our gaze upward and to lead us to ponder the origin of our existence.— a search that, if pursued logically, will lead to the conclusion of a self-existent Creator, and if coupled with God's grace, will lead us to our surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. So many ponder the vastness of the universe and know that there must be a God, but they stop short of pursuing the truth in the Bible that would lead them the rest of the way way to the answer of life and death. Some hear the truth and lament that they wish they could believe, but they refuse it, claiming a variety of reasons that merely mask their rebellion to surrender to the authority— surrender the authority of their life to God. I get it, oh brother. All my life I questioned authority, and although I wasn't a known troublemaker, I was too smart for that. I was positively anarchistic in terms of defying standards, rules, and regulations in my heart, because all I needed to see was one drop of hypocrisy or one iota of self-interest or a desire to control, and I would see that those in authority didn't know what they were doing or were doing it for selfish reasons. Ironically, these insights in my youth should have led me to the perfect government of God's kingdom and to embrace the measures he ordained to establish and maintain the limited amount of good, justice, and stability that we have on earth, rather than inwardly screaming "anarchy!" and seeking to defy authority in any way I could that would give me the personal satisfaction that I knew better or I was in control of me. A Nine Inch Nails song's lyric summed up my secret heart: I'd rather die than give you control. Well, the good news is I did die. It is only through my faith in Christ in dying and being raised to life with him that I am not currently hungover and angry about having to face another day working for "the man." I never should have been a rebel because of the imperfections of mankind to establish God's peace on earth. Instead of trying to tear things down, I should have used my insights to make things better. I should have been a reformer rather than a rebel, but boy am I glad I didn't. What? Um, yeah, if I had taken that path, I would have really been, uh, full of myself. And my self-righteous— and my self-righteousness was bad enough as a rebel. Uh, could you imagine how inflated my ego would have been if I had sought to be good in my own strength and with my atheistic secular human humanistic bent, would have been even more convinced that I didn't need God. But oh well. If we understand reality and God's grace, we have to understand that we shouldn't Monday quarterback our lives, even on a Tuesday. We got, we got one life to live. We can't go back. We made our choices and we can't choose a different path, pathway back. When in the past— oh wait, uh, to even con— wait, we can't choose a different path way back when in the past. Wow, that was tough. Uh, to even contemplate these ideas is in truth a tremendous waste of time. But instead, we can choose to follow a new path, prayerfully God's path, today. But even if we do play devil's advocate advocate and contemplate what-if with our past, we have to realize that if God wanted us in his kingdom, no choices we could make, we could, would have made, would have made a difference in terms of coming to Christ. Thank you, God. So if you do do that what-if stuff, stop supposing and start living, starting now. Anyway, as I was working out today, an older, not that old, worship song came on and And it reminded me of the earlier days of my walk with Christ and how I needed more faith because even though I did believe, I still struggled with sin and unbelief. The song was "Give Me Faith" by Elevation Worship. I'm sharing a link to the lyric video on YouTube on the blog today if you want to check it out. Anyway, the lyrics say: I need you to soften my heart and break me apart. I need you to pierce through the dark and cleanse every part of me. All I am, I surrender. Give me faith to trust what you say, that you're good and your love is great. I'm broken, broken inside. I give you my life. I may be weak, but your spirit's strong in me. My flesh may fail, but my God, you never will. This is an awesome song to proclaim over your faith walk, but to live it requires that surrender, and as the lyrics indicate, it is a total surrender. Do you understand the implications of a life surrendered to God's wills and ways? Surrendered To God's wills and ways— sorry about that. Well, let's just say they are far-reaching and the depth of which knows no limits. If you are ever bored in your Christianity, it's because you haven't answered the call to repent, to follow the Lord, and to totally surrender your life to God's will. One of the things we see in any faith system is a division between clergy and laity, and with the laity, there are those who practice their faith devoutly and those who don't. All these divisions are man-made for the most part. God does call us to be a royal priesthood, but I get it, some are called to lead and/or serve different functions in the body and some aren't. So very well, clergy. God's Word actually ordains in terms of teachers, pastors, overseers, and deacons. So I understand leaders in different functions within the body of Christ. The term I prefer the body of Christ, which is the term I prefer over church because of the confusion surrounding that word because of our church traditions and cultures. I teach freedom in Christ and encourage a lifestyle of discipleship following Christ. And although we will all have different levels of spiritual maturity, unlike the clergy division, there really shouldn't be a division between Christians who practice their faith and Christians who don't. Christians who don't practice their faith should truly worry about their salvation. I know I did when I was a member of a liturgical church. I, I might have been in the church building, but I don't know, pretty sure I wasn't in the body of Christ until 2010 when I put my faith in Christ alone and began surrendering my life to God's wisdoms and ways. When we surrender, not only do we discover that our life in Christ causes us to reduce or abandon our obvious sins, all, all at once or little by little. It can also cause us to pursue good works or to do service for God's kingdom. Okay, stop evil, do good, right? But as we walk this surrendered life out, we will discover that the Holy Spirit will give us a heightened sense of goodness, a fruit of the Spirit, which will spill into the ways we view things and choose to live, things that aren't good for us are increasingly exposed by our maturing spiritual discernment, and our heart's desire will be increasingly to do what's right in all kinds of areas of our lives. I've shared that one of the areas that this has poured into my life is the care of my body, specifically in terms of trying to be a healthy weight and to not experience pain from my poor choices. It also includes getting enough sleep. I'm increasingly learning and repenting from my health sins. My job takes me all over the Capital District, and I often— I am often called to do installs or repair of telephone service in nursing homes. As I have said before, it's not how you start but how you finish. And if you want to be convicted about the importance of your health, go to a nursing home or rehabilitation center and look at the consequences of poor choices played out over time. Not only do we have to foster our mental and spiritual health on this path of, uh, to, uh, of discipleship, um, we have to take care of the temple of the Holy Spirit. Uh, we have to care for our bodies. The other day I was walking through a nursing home and a woman who was in a wheelchair with her feet elevated. It was easy to see that her feet were in rough shape, and she was crying and literally calling for God in heaven to help her as she was calling out to anyone who walked by to cut her toenails, which were huge. Yep, including me. I couldn't help her, of course, and it was heartbreaking. My foots— I had foot surgery a few years, a few years ago to get rid of some growths, mitosis, and after After that experience, I decided to take care of my feet and use lotion on them every morning for quite some time. But as things got hectic with my blog and my podcast, I stopped doing it. But not anymore. After seeing this woman's pain, I am more convinced to take care of my body so I am— so I can be healthy and be used by God to give him glory as long as he and gives me on this earth. So as part of my faith walk, I'm lotioning my feet again. I, I want to be a good steward of what God has given me and to be fully surrendered to him in everything I become aware of. I may never be perfect in walking and talking with God, but if I see something in my journey that indicates I should change, I'll try to be diligent to to surrender it to the Lord and use His strength and guidance to change it. So, Lord, give me faith to trust what You say, because You're good and Your love is great. Although I have been walking with You for some time now, there are still parts of my life that are broken. I give You my life. I may be weak, but Your Spirit is strong in me. My flesh may fail, Oh my God, you never will. I surrender. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Hebrews 8:12, and it says, 'And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.' Today's verse reminds us that God forgives our wickedness and promises to never again remember them. Of course, I have to point out that God's knowledge is perfect, and today's verse doesn't tell us that God has forgotten our sins. His, his never again remembering our sins means that he has truly forgiven us and he won't hold them against us. God calls us to be a saint, his adopted child. He doesn't call us He doesn't call you a sinner. So if you call yourself a sinner saved by grace, I recommend you agree with God and give yourself a break. Never again remember your sins if they cause you to feel condemned or shy away from proclaiming the gospel. Yeah, you sinned, you messed up. Guess what? Everyone has. But in Christ, we have forgiveness and a new life with victory over sin. So instead of beating yourself up about your old life before you died, Mourn it and rise to life by following Christ and living differently. There is no condemnation for those in Christ, so believe it and live your life, your new life, where God will lead you in the way you should go. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Clinton Arnold's Powers of Darkness. Today we're sharing a section from chapter 11 called Spiritual Warfare as Proclamation. And in it, Clinton Arnold basically tells us that spiritual warfare is not only defensive, but it also takes the offensive. So, you know, we proclaim things about ourselves.

The Who I Am in Christ list is a great example of the things we should proclaim.

To know who we are in Christ and to believe it, receive it, and live it out. So, you know, that's one way we can, you know, have some spiritual warfare proclamation is proclaiming who we are and proclaiming the Word of God, what God has done, what God has said.

You know, that's it.

We resist the spiritual forces of darkness and the authority structures these set up, and we support what is good and what God has ordained. So this morning we just want to encourage everyone, obviously, to follow your faith, surrender it, and surrender your life to God in whatever areas of life he chooses us, you know. I was highly convicted about the temple of the Holy Spirit and how we should increasingly care for it, you know, like our feet, our teeth, our bodies in general, everything, you know. Basically, we should surrender it all to God and use it for His glory. So we encourage that. And, you know, if you need faith, pray for faith and pursue the Lord, you know, read His Word. You know, we recommend several resources on our, you know, through our blog all the books we've shared. And through the blog, there's, there's various links to different topics that'll lead you to books that I've shared in the past, depending on the topic.

So, you know, we encourage people to check that out.

If you want some teaching, you know, we, we, we, we share our, our teachings on the, on the podcast for a reason, for people to get built up in their faith.

And learn what God would have you do, and to experience your freedom, um, and to live a discipled life. So we, we provide teachings for Victory Over the Darkness, Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ for that purpose. And they're basically on the podcast and our YouTube channel for people to, to enjoy and to share with, with other people. So it's our prayer that that could help someone.

And we also obviously revere the Word of God, and we recommend personal Bible study as a daily practice. And we encourage that through our, our weekly Bible study that we do once a week with Arthur and Susanna Zinkati. It's called Bible Study with the Zinkatis, and we invite you to check that out on the podcast or the YouTube channel. All right, um, it is Tuesday, so just another day of the work week.

Um, so we— I think we should go with the Lord. What do you think? Yeah, let's pray.

Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for all that you do for us.

Um, you know, all you've forgiven us of and all you've led us into since the day we made Jesus our Lord and Savior. Oh Lord, we pray for the people listening today, that they would be built up in their most holy through the power of the Holy Spirit in them. We pray for a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit for everyone who's listening to this today, to know that God's with them and that he cares about, about them, and he hears their, their, their prayers. So Lord, we come alongside them in their walk and come alongside them in their prayer request. We pray for Arthur Sankadi, who's traveling in Boston to be with his family, and that wake of his brother's death. So we pray for Arthur and Susanna and all the Sankatis, and that we just pray that you give them comfort and peace. And we also pray that you use Arthur and Susanna to shine a light for your kingdom, Lord, to give people that hope that goes beyond life and death. We also pray for those who are suffering from physical pains from surgeries and and such. Um, Lord, we pray for the healing that you have for them, Lord. But most importantly, we pray for them to turn to you and pray for themselves to be healed and to grow a deeper relationship with you. Instead of just caring for the body, they care for their soul and their spirit by drawing close to you at all times. So Lord, we just pray for your Holy Spirit to work in these areas in our lives and the lives of the others that we've touched. Or we just want to thank you for everything you do. And for today, Lord, we just want you to open our eyes to, to show us the things we need to see in terms of the beauty of this world, or in terms of our purpose and our jobs, our families, or whatever. Lord, help us to see what we need to know. And, uh, Lord, we pray that you guide us into the good things you want us to do to represent you here on the earth. Lord, we thank you, we praise you.

We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.